Country Profile
Japan (formally Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan)is an island nation located in Pacific Ocean in East Asia
Japan is an Archipelago of 6852 Islands.The 4 largest islands -
1)Honshu(accounts for 80% of Japan's population)
2)Hokkaido
3)Kyushu and
4)Shikoku
together comprising about 97% of Japan's land area.
About 73 % of Japan is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for Agriculture,Industrial or Residential use.
Japan consists of 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages.
As of 2011, Japan is the third largest national economy in the world, after the USA and China, in terms of Nominal GDP
Capital Tokyo
Currency Yen
Population 126 Million
Official Language Japanese
History
Politics and Govt.
Japan is a Constititional Monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the Constitution as "the symbol of the State and of the Unity of the People". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet,the parliament of Japan.The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government and is appointed by the Emperor after being designated by the Diet from among its members.
Diet is Bicameral where -
The House of Representatives (Lower House)has 480 members, elected for a four-year term and
The House of Councillors(Upper House)has 242 members who each serve six-year terms
There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age,with a secret ballot for all elected offices.
Elections in Japan
The Japanese political system has 3 types of elections -
General Elections to the House of Representatives held every 4 years (unless the lower house is dissolved earlier)has 480 members, elected for a four year term, 300 members in single-seat constituencies and 180 members by proportional representation in 11 block districts.
Elections to the House of Councillors held every 3 years to choose one-half of its members, has 242 members, elected for a six year term, 146 members in multi-seat constituencies (prefectures) and 96 by proportional representation on the national level and
Local elections held every 4 years for offices in prefectures, cities, and villages.
The minimum voting age is twenty years; voters must satisfy a three-month residency requirement before being allowed to cast a ballot.
For those seeking office, there are two sets of age requirements: twenty-five years of age for admission to the House of Representatives and most local offices, and thirty years of age for admission to the House of Councillors and the prefectural governorship.
Each deposit for candidacy is 3 million yen (30 thousand dollars) for single-seat constituency and 6 million yen (60 thousand dollars) for proportional representation.
PRC-Japan Islands Row
Relations between PRC and Japan have been repeatedly strained by a territorial row over a group of islands, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in PRC.
The 8 uninhabited islands and rocks in question lie in the East China Sea. They have a total area of about 7 sq km and lie northeast of Taiwan, east of the Chinese mainland and southwest of Japan's southern-most prefecture, Okinawa.They matter because they are close to strategically important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain oil deposits. The islands are controlled by Japan.
Japan's Claim
Japan says it surveyed the islands for 10 years and determined that they were uninhabited. That being the case, on 14 January 1895 it erected a sovereignty marker that formally incorporated the islands into Japanese territory. The Senkaku islands became part of the Nansei Shoto islands - also known as the Ryukyu islands and now as modern-day Okinawa prefecture.
China's Claim
China says that the Diaoyu islands have been part of its territory since ancient times, serving as important fishing grounds administered by the province of Taiwan.
Saburo Shochi (aged 106)travels around world on public transport
Saburo Shochi has been recognised by Guinness World Records for his feat, which saw him travel through North America, Europe and Africa.
Saburo Shochi,a professor emeritus at Fukuoka University of Education, started travelling frequently at the age of 99.
Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda wins party leadership vote
Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (6th PM in 6 years)has won a party leadership vote against three challengers, more than a year after assuming office on Friday Sep 21,2012.Noda won 818 points out of a total of 1,231 points in the vote
Noda was re-elected president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) by a convincing majority.Three others challenged Mr Noda for DPJ chief - former agriculture ministers Michihiko Kano and Hirotaka Akamatsu, and former Internal Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi.
Noda became DPJ head after Naoto Kan resigned after the Fukushima crisis.
New leader for Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) - Sep 26,2012
Shinzo Abe succeeds Sadakazu Tanigaki as President of the LDP
Japan PM Yoshihiko Noda names new ministers - Oct 1,2012
Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda has named a new finance minister, in a reshuffle aimed at revitalising his cabinet.
Koriki Jojima replaces Jun Azumi in the key post, while the foreign and defence ministers kept their jobs. Makiko Tanaka, who served a brief tenure as foreign minister, was named education minister in a move seen as reflecting her ties with Beijing amid a territorial row with China.
Japan introduces piracy penalties for illegal downloads
Japan-based internet
users who download copyright infringing files face up to two years in
prison or fines of up to two million yen ($25,700; £15,900) after a
change to the law.
Such activity has been illegal since 2010, but until now had not invoked the penalties.Japan Prime Minister Dissolves Parliament - Friday Nov 16,2012
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has dissolved the Lower
House of Japan’s Parliament, paving the way for a general election
likely to end his Democratic Party(DPJ) of Japan’s three-year hold on power.
Yoshihiko Noda followed through Friday on an earlier pledge to call elections
after the opposition Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) agreed to back several key
pieces of legislation, including a deficit financing Bill and electoral
reforms.
According to the Japanese constitution, elections must be held within 40 days of the dissolution. The Cabinet was expected to quickly announce elections for December 16,2012.
Hopes of meeting those pledges faded after the first DJP premier, Yukio Hatoyama, squandered political capital in a failed attempt to move a US airbase off Japan's Okinawa island.
Successor Naoto Kan led the party to an upper house election defeat in 2010 and then struggled to cope with the huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises in 2011.
The LDP looks likely to win the most seats in the lower house poll, but a lack of voter enthusiasm makes it uncertain whether the party and its former junior partner, the New Komeito party, can win a majority.The LDP is led by Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister who stepped down citing health reasons in 2007 after only a year in office.
Smaller parties are scrambling to try to join forces despite major gaps in their policies and competition over who would lead the bigger bloc.
General Election -Dec 16,2012
The 46th general election of members of the House of Representatives will be held on 16 December 2012
The last general election took place in 2009. The DPJ, led by Yukio Hatoyama , received 42.41% of the proportional block votes and 47.43% of the district votes cast, and the next largest party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), received 26.73% in the proportional and 38.68% in the district vote. Due to the characteristics of the Japanese Election System, DPJ candidates won 308 seats in the Lower House (64.2% of seats), enabling Hatoyama to become Prime Minister.
Since then, Japan has had two further prime ministers,Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda, who have come to power without a general election.
Japan's voters go to the polls on SundayDec 16,2012 that determines the composition of the lower house of Japan's parliament (Diet), the 480-member House of Representatives, which determines who forms the government.
The upper house, the 242-member House of
Councillors, is not up for election
The Election Process
Members
of the House of Representatives are elected for 4- year-terms
using a mixed electoral system, with 300 members elected by simple
majorities in single-member constituencies and the remaining 180 from
National Party lists in proportion to their party's share of the vote
The Election Result Expectations
The election is likely to deliver a setback to the governing Democratic Party of
Japan(DPJ) only 3 years after it ended decades of nearly unbroken rule
by the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP)
The
Incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihiko Nodaof Democratic Party of Japan
(DPJ) formed from various small social democratic and liberal groups in
1998,
the DPJ led by Yukio Hatoyama unites a range of political views, from
centre-left to centrist,swept to power for the first time in 2009 amid
voter
fatigue with more than 50 years of nearly uninterrupted government by
the LDP, winning a strong 308-seat majority
The DPJ has seen a steady decline in its popularity, experiencing two
changes of prime minister, party infighting and corruption scandals,
and acquiring a reputation with many voters for ineffectiveness.The main opposition party - the LDP - has rebounded since losing power, benefiting from disillusionment with the DPJ
Main Party Leaders and Prime Ministerial Candidates
Yoshihiko Noda became DPJ leader and PM of Japan in August 2011 after his predecessor, Naoto Kan, resigned in response to criticism of his handling of the Fukushima disaster.
Shinzo Abe,leader of LDP has chance of becoming the PM of Japan for a second time after serving in the office and as LDP leader between September 2006 and September 2007
Japan's New PM Shinzo Abe Unveils his Cabinet
Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unveiled his cabinet shortly after parliament voted for Shinzo Abe as PM, following LDP defeating the governing Democratic Party (DPJ) in the Dec 16,2012 poll.
Shinzo Abe, who was also PM in 2006-07, chose another former premier, Taro Aso, for the key role of finance minister.The former trade and industry minister, Akira Amari, has been named as minister for economic revival and veteran Toshimitsu Motegi was chosen for the post of trade minister.
Japan's New Cabinet
- Taro Aso (above) - Japan's former premier between 2008-2009 becomes finance minister and deputy prime minister
- Fumio Kishida - foreign minister
- Yoshihide Suga - chief cabinet secretary
- Akira Amari - Tasked with economic revitalisation portfolio
- Itsunori Onodera - defence minister
- Nobuteru Ishihara - nuclear crisis minister
- Toshimitsu Motegi - trade minister
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